Words by: Dan Lamb – Interview by: Chase Yocom – Photo by: Hoppenworld
Heading into round eight of the 2015 Monster Energy Supercross, an FIM World Championship series, and the first of two Atlanta Supercross events in a row, Red Bull/KTM’s Ryan Dungey had a twelve-point lead in the 450SX Championship. After grabbing his seventh-straight podium finish with a second in Atlanta, the #5 will head into the Atlanta 2 Supercross with a much more comfortable twenty-five point gap over Honda Racing’s Trey Canard. With “The Diesel” being the most consistent rider in the sport today, it’s going to be tough for any of the 450SX contenders to chip away at that gap moving forward.
In Atlanta last weekend, Ryan was once again the machine-like rider we’ve come to expect. With two main event wins heading into round eight and a firm grip on the red plate, the 2010 450SX Champion qualified fourth into the night show, out-dueled GEICO/Honda’s Eli Tomac for the heat race win and headed into the main event with the first gate pick. In the main, Ryan rounded turn one around seventh, checked in after lap one in fourth and by lap eight was in second and closing in on the leader, Discount Tire Racing’s Chad Reed. Unfortunately for the #5, Reedy was throwing down consistently fast laps with few mistakes and the Atlanta 1 SX win would belong to the #22. The best for Dungey on Saturday was a second, but RCH/Suzuki’s Ken Roczen crashing twice and finishing 18th and Canard finishing in 3rd, Dungey added a very valuable thirteen points to his 450SX Championship lead.
After the main event, MotoXAddicts’ Chase Yocom caught up with Ryan inside the Red Bull/KTM rig for a quick interview. You can read what the red plate holder had to say in his “Race Rewind” interview below.
Ryan, second place on the night at Atlanta 1 SX. How was the main event for you tonight?
Good. The start could have been a little bit better. I think that was really the key tonight, and Chad [Reed] got that. I was back in fourth. The track was good. It was tough to make the pass on [Weston] Peick, and once I was able to get around him for second, Chad had a little bit of a gap on me. But I put my best charge in and tried to catch him as quick as I could. It was a strong effort, and this track was hard to make time up on people, so I really had to push hard and be smart. I was able to get to him—within a little bit of him—but he was riding a good race. If somebody else is going to win, it’s cool to see him win it. He’s still got it I guess. (laughs)
What are your thoughts on some of the different obstacles they’ve been throwing at you guys? They even threw some tough blocks in the middle of the whoops tonight.
Well, there was a split lane, and it’s hard because these days everyone is going so fast and we’re trying to find the fastest way possible and that happened to be the inside lane. I really never took the outside ever tonight, besides in practice, so I don’t know if it was better or not. I guess I should have given it a fair chance, but I guess it’s one of those things. It’s really hard to make a split lane perfect because you have to make something identical on each side, you know what I mean—and that’s tough. The guys at Dirt Wurx did a good job, and they worked the track nice going into the night show which was good. It held up pretty good through the whole night which was nice.
You were fast all day from the first practice on, but man, in the main you were really looking comfortable. Were there a lot of bike changes for you today or just a few?
Nah, not a lot. We tried some stuff and for sure we were able to make a little bit of progress, which I was happy with. Sometimes you have to try this and try that to find a direction. That’s what I feel like we did and we stuck with that. In the third timed practice, it was really a matter of getting a good lap, and I never really did. I was comfortable, I was happy with everything and I’m glad we went into the night show with what we ended with. I was able to put in a really good heat race. My times and everything was good. I got the fastest heat race and first pick to the gate in the main, which these days is huge because it’s so rough behind and ahead of the gate that there’s only a few good lines. It’s crucial to be able to go to the gate first and getting to pick first.
Today didn’t look like the typical Atlanta SX Georgia clay. Did that make tire selection more difficult than normal tonight?
Yeah, there were some fluffy parts, but this Georgia clay gets hard. That kind of hard sticky, you know, suck your bike up. But no, we didn’t switch tires up at all. I really like the tires I run—front and rear—pretty consistently in all conditions. I know what they do and that’s what I like to stick with.
This year you brought on Aldon Baker as a trainer, and since then, it seems like we’ve seen a different level of intensity from you. Has bringing him on helped out a lot?
Yeah. I mean with Aldon, he’s a solid guy. His program is really solid, and he’s really upped my game physically, mentally, and just overall, there’s a balance I feel like he brings to the team and myself. Obviously, I had weak points, and I don’t know them. Sometimes you have to reach out and hire other people that are experts in that area. I feel like, yeah, it’s a good balance, our program’s really solid and I trust in him with the riding and the training so I can focus on the racing. It eases my mind so I can focus on the racing more.
You have a new nickname this year: The Diesel. (laughs) What are you thoughts on the new nickname?
You know, honestly, I don’t care. It is what it is, and I guess you create nicknames along the way and some stick and some don’t, so this seems to be sticking with a lot of people. (laughs) [Jeremy] McGrath gave me a good name, I guess you could say. It is what it is and I really don’t know how to look at it. The Diesel, I guess it’s kind of cool, but people seem to like it so whatever.
Nice. Thanks again for you time tonight talking with us. You’re bring the red plate back to Atlanta again next week and that’s got to feel good.
Yeah, we’ll keep after it and keep building. Thank you.
